Lots of stuff coming up this week — a new Guest Column, a review of a new-to-me webcomic, plus whatever zaniness crops us this week. But there are few things to discuss first:

1. Lore Sjoberg has been on a bit of a hiatus from his Flash-animated series Sean and Wormwood (the friendly Satanists) over at Bad Gods. Mostly, it’s down to not being able to make the voices sound right when he’s in one place and his fellow actor is elsewhere.

   So Lore‘s experimenting with different forms, including pure webcomic and close-captioned. Check ’em out, let him know what you like (and if there’s anybody alive that knows what geeks and nerds are like, it’s Lore)

2. There was a spot to find lots of webcomickers on Saturday, besides Seattle. The famed Peculier Pub was home to such luminaries as Andy Bell, Meredith Gran, Chris Hastings, Rich Stevens, and honoree Jon Rosenberg, in honor of the 10th Anniversary Party of Goats.

   Alas, fellow Goater (and Fleen publisher) Phillip Karlsson was not able to attend for very good reasons, which he should be sharing with us shortly. In any event, for being a nerd and appealing to nerds, Mr Rosenberg was treated to adoration, fannish behavior, and shots.

3. To round out today’s theme: that image up there is 20 American dollars that the funniest man alive paid me (I answered an open call for a “nerd”) to fix his laptop’s printer drivers. If I had kids, I’d make them compete with each other for my affections to decide who to leave it to.

Let’s jump right into it, shall we?

• Happy anniversary to A Girl And Her Fed. Wait? Eyes? Freakshow!
• Want to know where webcomics are now/are going? R Stevens has some thoughts.
• Fleen fave Ugly Hill is now visible at Viper Comics, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Wes Molebash, Bryan! Chojnowski, Josh Howard, and Kazu Kibuishi
• Emerald City Comi-con is starting now-ish, with a healthy webcomics component; check out most of Blank Label, PvP, Penny Arcade, Unshelved, Girl Genius, Scene Language, and more, including a Sunday afternoon panel on the bid’ness of webcomics.
• Speaking of Scene Language, Corey Marie wrote a while back to tell us this:
  

  As you may or may not know, John K of has a blog that he writes a bunch of stuff for animators in. A lot of it is animation specific, but there’s also the occasional bit that applies to comics, too. Today he’s got a bit about scene planning that I found really interesting. He’s talking about making cartoons for TV on a budget, but thinking things through to this level for some of us web cartoonists would save a lot of time and headaches, and give us a better final product.

  Good call, Corey Marie!

• As long as we’re in the mailbag, Tyler Page wrote us the other day with The Big Announcement:
  

  Nothing Better has been running online for over a year and many of you have asked when the first trade would be available. The time is now — to bring the story back to print so you can hold it in your hands to read it and store it on your bookshelf like it was meant to be. The thing is, it costs a lot of money to print a book. Money that I just don’t have sitting around so I’d like to do something that could end up being thoroughly embarrassing.

  I’d like you to consider buying a copy of the book now. Nothing Better Volume 1: No Place Like Home will be 200 pages in black and white, 6×9 inches, and contain chapters 1-7 along with bonus development materials and sketches not available online. The quote from the printer is around $3000 and I’m going to charge a paltry $15 cover price for the book. That translates into 200 books in order to pay for the printing.

  Please consider pre-ordering the book now and support independent, home-grown comics.

  Also, beginning Tuesday April 10, Nothing Better will begin updating twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

You heard the man — get pre-orderin’, and enjoy the hell out of your weekend.

Editor’s note: David Hamilton wrote to me last week; he’d done an interview with Jeff Knooren of A Murder of Crows and Out In The Morning, and wanted to know if we wanted to run it. See that, people? That’s initiative, and we like it. Without further ado, David Hamilton and Jeff Knooren.

Jeff Knooren is multi-talented. In addition to drawing and writing “A Murder of Crows� and “Out in the Morning,� Knooren is programming a simulation game (think the money-hungry greed of monopoly, but instead of dice rolls you have to make cutthroat management decisions.) He also designs and sells cat furniture.

He’s not afraid to share his opinion, and he makes it clear that he is not going to be intimidated by the “webcomics community.� I had the chance to ask him some questions about how and why he creates webcomics, and the artistic and commercial direction of webcomics in general.

(more…)

We had that question last week about using social networks to build audiences, but there’s another issue I’ve been thinking about since then, and that’s converting that first-time visitor (which is what you’re seeking at said social network) into a committed fan. The bulk of your success in conversion will depend on the quality of your product, but there are other things that you can do and some of them are so subtle, the reader almost won’t notice it’s being done

Case in point: Dave Kellett, who on Tuesday wrote the following under his strip:

If you’re diggin’ the Star Wars strips, you may want to read this two-week story arc from a year back, where Sheldon and Arthur go to the “Lame Sci-Fi Characters & Sidekicks Convention”.

It’s all the Sleestaks, Ewoks, Tom Bombadil, and original Cylons you could ever ask for … all standing side-by-side.

This is my favorite one from that storyline, I think.

See what he did there? He’s just convinced me to click back through two weeks of storyline, generating pageviews for his advertisers; I wouldn’t have done that otherwise. And if the content he sends me to is compelling enough, I’ll keep clicking. Also: note that the storyline he links to — it’s short enough to read in a few minutes, long enough to capture interest, and doesn’t require any backstory to get the jokes. It’s the perfect hook for a first-time reader.

Next thing you know, they’re stuck reading the whole damn archive, and Kellett’s advertisers suspect him of fraud (this happened last year, when many Sheldon readers — new and old — sat down and read through the archives in one go, sent the pageviews through the roof and Google got all suspicious). Kellett’s been doing this regularly since he left comics.com last Fall (and thus could open up his archives), and it was only yesterday that I realized what it was he was doing.

Think you’re immune to the lure of “just one more page?” I spent the past several days comprehensively reading the archive of a blog called The Comics Curmudgeon. Okay, it’s not about webcomics, but who knew that Mary Worth was full of stalkers, Southeast Asian hell-holes, and meth labs? Apartment 3-G? Kidnappings, forced labor in sweatshops, and finger quotin’ Margo. Foob? Utter hatred of Michael’s book deal and Anthony. It’s crack-tastic.

And there’s the rub — if your content isn’t crack-tastic, and if you don’t have enough to really rope in the new readers and make ’em figure, Well hell, I’m committed to it now, then this doesn’t help you. So it all comes back to what we’ve been told again and again — update regular, update as much as you can, make the content as good as you can.

Film at eleven.

Last week I was looking for autobio works by male-identified authors. I suspected there were many more online than I’d found, but it took my going offline to find the totally endearing High Maintenance Machine by Matthew Reidsma, which is available both online as well as in minicomics form (depends how you like your reading). High Maintenance Machine is a sketchbook diary that visually very much evokes James Kolchalka’s work, and in fact name checks him from time to time.

I discovered the print collections at this past weekend’s Boston Zine Fair; the webcomics (which appear daily) are collected monthly and printed in minicomics form. About one of his issues, Reidsma writes, “If you like comics about people talking on cell phones and leaves falling off of trees in New England, with a bit about naughty cats and sleepy boys, this might just be for you.�

The main character grapples entertainingly with simple things, like getting the lid off a jar of salsa (or not), a sneezing spouse (who creates her own incredible art as well) and, it’s true, the aforementioned naughty cats, who are also sometimes abominably cute. There are of course mentions of holidays as well as random sweet moments interspersed throughout.

We see him solving a cake problem and surviving cooking mishaps. Reidsma disarmingly details the very real perils of autobio work and reveals the real truth about graduate school.

But his work is most disarming when it is evocative and heartbreaking. These are strips that are so personal and poignant that it just kind of stuns the reader for a second, especially someone just clicking through the archives. Any autobio author can take moments from his or her life and spin them into a one-note joke (I know this punchline as “banjo player� rather than “philosopher�), but it takes someone who really understands how comics work to create strips like these which just so gracefully knock the wind out of you. They’re amazing, beautiful things, all the more so for their economy.

It’s fascinating to watch Reidsma’s drawing style become more refined the more he draws; the differences between the early strips composed shortly after his 30th birthday freakout and his current work is noticeable but charming. It’s always interesting to see an artist’s work develop over time, and that’s one of the real strengths of High Maintenance Machine. It’s also relatively recent (August 2006) and the strips are perfectly sized little slices of life, so reading through the archives is not a daunting task.

Reidsma also has a number of other projects available online, the only one of which with regular updates is Happy Child, which are stories from his childhood. But there’s also the utterly winsome 24-hour comic Skippy and the Magic Tricycle, as well as a number of the newspaper strips that Reidsma published in the Western Michigan University Herald in 1999. You can see echoes in High Maintenance Machine of some of the elements in these strips (like the bar-code faced people).

Have a look. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Semi-rhetorical question: What’s cooler than a Ryan? How about a Ryan that you can send on missions? Ryan Estrada may not realize what he’s letting himself in for:

Okay, so CAD and PVP have been adapted into an animated series, along with others … but if a journal comic is adapted into a live-action series, does that count as a webcomic adaptation? Or is it just a videoblog? I dunno, I’m asking!

But my Adventures comics have now become The Ryan Estrada Expeditions. A weekly video series where people send me missions, and I travel the world completing them. I’ve got a 24-hour adventure hotline set up, as well as an e-mail adress for people to send me missions. New episodes every Monday here.

I’m planning a big cross country road trip/film shoot across South India this weekend, and I’m looking for more missions! They can be sent to ryan {commercial at} ryanestrada {full stop} com, or left on my adventure voicemail at 1 (696) 593-RYAN.

I think the first question we all have right now is, Why don’t I have an adventure voicemail?, but we all know the answer to that: because we’re boring and we suck compared to a Ryan. But the second (and much more pertinent) question is surely, What should I ask Ryan Estrada to do? If you need inspiration, check out a prior missions webcomic (Interesting thought — does this now constitute a new genre? Discuss.) but don’t expect as many Klingons to show up in South India as in Tokyo.

Two reviews on tap this week — one brand new (but not quite a book), and one that’s not exactly new (but an actual book). Let’s take ’em in order.

Actually new last week was issue 1 of DJ Coffman‘s Hero By Night. I don’t read a lot of superhero comics, but this was pretty enjoyable. The art is bright and clean for the modern-day segments of the story, slightly muddied and 4-color looking for the parts that took place in the past. Coffman’s got a good sense of pacing, an interesting story hook on the “misfit stumbles into being a hero” trope, and some pretty snappy dialogue. If I had to describe it, I’d say it was more in line with the “Origins” storyline at Yirmumah than Coffman’s other work. It’s only a couple dozen pages, so it’s tough to get a feel for the overall story, but early indications are good.

Obligatory nod towards controversy: much has been said of how Platinum Studios is not an actual comic book publisher, and how their Comic Book Challenge is merely a mechanism to strip-mine ideas from creators. Whatever may be true, Platinum has now managed to publish at least this one comic book, and in all his public statements, Coffman has expressed that he’s happy with the deal. As long as everybody keeps their act together long enough to finish Hero By Night (and do a trade reprint of the four issue run), then I’d say things will have turned out about as well as could be expected.

Next up: Penny Arcade Volume 3: The Warsun Prophecies, which continues the comprehensive reprint of strips into calendar year 2002. Curiously, Dark Horse appears to be shipping the Penny Arcade books to mainstream bookstores first, leaving the direct market comic shops out of the loop for weeks.

2002 was a pivotal year for Penny Arcade, with creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik making a living on reader donations and “Club PA” gift art; it was into this marginally sustainable business model that one Robert Khoo introduced himself, and began the transformation of Penny Arcade, webcomic to Penny Arcade, viable business. Struggle and deprivation can force creativity to new heights, and many things that would become hallmarks of Penny Arcade made their debut in 2002:

• The first rear-angle shots of characters appeared early in the year, as Krahulik’s art evolved past a talking heads model (including his interpretations of other art styles, like classic Kirby energy blobs or educational films)
• The [in]famous Fruit Fucker (curiously missing from the archives, originally running 11 Feb 2002) made his visual debut; he’s practically the symbol of the strip now (true story: I saw Krahulik doing sketches at San Diego last year, greeting each person with a sketchbook with a cheerful, “Fruit Fucker?”, and 98% of the time the reply was a hearty “Yeah!”)
• The Tube, later to become key to some of the strip’s most imaginative stories and art
• And, critically, Carrot Cake Soup, easily the most delicious idea of 2002

As with previous volumes, nice job of printing, although two or three strips appear slightly blurry, probably the result of being reproduced from low-res originals. All in all, a good year for the strip, a good collection of laughs, and a critical year for Holkins & Krahulik personally. Oh, and an intro by Scott Kurtz, full of bile, invective, and more than a little love.

Who wantz webcomicz newz?

• The Clan McCloud tour rolls on, with new April dates posted. Later this week, Scott McCloud will be bestowing Infinite Geek Points on Amy Kim Ganter & Kazu Kibiushi.
• Webcomic/pop journalism column creator Mike Russell has shifted Culture Pulp to a new home at Webcomics Nation; nearly 60 archived issues remain at CulturePulp.com.
• I don’t know who this guy is, but I bet he uses Linux in his day job. Stephven Cloud documents I-CON 26.
• Fleen wishes to congratulate Andy Bell for Officially Ceasing His Hatred Of Freedom; bonus points for naturalizing while wearing a terror beard.
• Intrepid reader David Hamilton is the latest to take us up on the Guest Column offer; he did an interview with Jeff Knooren, creator of A Murder Of Crows, and it will run here in the next couple of days. If you want to get in on the fun of providing us content for free, drop us a line.

Two quick things:

• Found copies of both the newest Penny Arcade book and DJ Coffman‘s Hero By Night in my pull box this week, so reviews coming.
• I-CON (now through Sunday) always brings out the webcomickers, so check ’em out if you’re on Long Island. Plus: Kari! Man that’s a great rendering of her.

The real reason for posting today was a recent letter from Shane Mitrovic:

Ok so this question may turn into a research thing or story.

I have a webcomic, but that not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about promotion via social networks. it seems a great deal of artists have Livejournals/MySpace/Facebook/ Comicspace accounts to try and draw in more readers. If you take a look at some of the friends lists, it seems that they were readers before and simply added the artist because of some sort of fanish pride or sense of connection.

Compound this with the typically horrible and all inclusive end user agreements, I want to know if artists have any noticable increase in readers as they add themselves to these networks.

While I was thinking over the question, somebody else published something resembling an answer for me: the fine hacks at El Reg; while they weren’t looking at webcomics particulary, they did run some numbers looking at whether or not social networks (specifically, MySpace) are of material benefit to independent artists (specifically musicians).

Their answer: kinda. You have to be very careful about the terms of service, but ultimately it gives you a chance at building an audience that you can sell directly to, cutting out the middleman (in our world, either a syndicate or distributor). I’ll note, though, that in running the numbers, they considered the effects of building up a friends list (to truly gargantuan proportions), but then actually running distribution elsewhere.

Okay, so you can make money if you can build up a network, but Shane’s question was whether or not such sites can help create that network. The article ran its numbers based on the friends list of one Tila Tequila (warning: audio); much like the young ladies shown above, Ms Tequila’s network seems to have been built largely on the proven technique of partially dressed young adult female(s). It’s not surprising that social networks can build up huge audiences with that bait dangling, since a significant percentage of the planet’s population is kinda hardwired to seek such visuals out.

So can you build up such a network with something that doesn’t involve winners of the genetic Powerball? Yep, but it’s back to the old dilemma — you have to have content that’s more compelling to your audience than what their lizard brain tells them to seek out (a. ways to not die; b. food or sex). If your stuff’s good enough, you can keep those eyeballs, so the lesson here is not to worry about how a networking site can attract an audience — worry about making your webcomic so frickin’ good that the audience seeks you out.